The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-24

Patiently, persistently, happily Bernar
| dino wrought, and one evening he asked
| Tornello to come and see what he had
| done.
Bernardino was still under IS, and
| it was less than eight years since be had
| first touched a chisel to stone. In all that
| time he had no teacher, no hint, no word of
| instruction. Neither had he seen any work
| of art in all his life until he came to Flor
| ence. In his childhood, when he had asked
| why the stone was quarried, they told him
that some of it was made into palaces; and
that some of it, also, was hewn for artists,
who, with chisels, cut it into the shapes of the
things around them which they thought low
lest Some of these things which the
artists made were exchanged for great for
tunes, the quarrylnen told him. And this
little was all that he knew Of art. The
most beautiful shapes about him, in those
bleak, conlforUless mountains, were those Of
the vines and flowers, poor and mean as
they were. So he began trying to reproduce
them in castaway fragments of stone, with
nothing to guide on direct him but intuition
and exquisiteneSs of soul.
Knowing all this, Tornello doubted if the
boy could do anything beyond crude chisel-
ings, in which their might be some promise
ment. And so, when he went TO inspect
Bernardino's wreath Of lilies and found it a
magnificent piece OF art in which he saw
nothing to criticise, his surprise and amaze
ment were boundless.
Catching the boy into his arms, he kissed
him warmly and rapturously.
':You do by nature that which | have al
ways striven to do by art" cried Tornello
"Call me master no longer. 1t is you who
are master-not /. No one else in Italy
could have done this thing SO well You
have genius-unmistakablc genius-the
rarest gift God ever gives, and you will
lead us all some day, unless some woman de-
stroys you. No, you do not, cannot under
stand; but You VIII soon enough-much too
soon. Bend all your thought, all your en-
ergies upon your art-then all viii be well
with you. Go one step out Of your
course and all your future is lost to you-a
future, too, like Michael Angeles. Such as
you are always in danger. While l live
will always try to keep you in safety; but
think only of your art That will ever be
your surest safeguard
The two worked ON together for the next
four years in perfect happiness and con-
tent BernardinOs fame spread until it
eclipsed that Of Tornello's, whose pride and
love for his protege increased with his days.
The young artist was petted and courted
upon every hand, but nothing but his be-
loved art seemed to have power to move
him. The most cunning and artful devices
of the most beautiful and charming women
failed TO wean him from his chisels. His
workshop was more to him than the finest
salon ia Italy, and in his heart there was
only love for 'forpello and the art which
they We're both seeking to glorify.
One night, in a dream, q woman came
10 Bernardino--a woman of the rarest
beauty.
"Go, once more" she said, ''to the bleak
northern Quarries whence you came here.
On the highest of all the hills is a block of
stone, which hangs IN a cleft in the rocks.
In il my body is imprisoned. | am the
Queen Of the lilies--the spirit presiding over
the flowers which you most love. Libcrate
me. Bring the block of stone here in the
City Of Lilies, here in the heart of my once
imperial kingdom. Set me free and win
reward YOU Whatever you will shall be
yours
Believing in HIS dream, he went back
northward o. tho detested quarries whence
be had fle,l five wears before. In the dome
Of the highest hill was deep, marrow
cleft. which looked as II 10 had been
chopped into the hard stone by blow from
some great AK IN this cleft, exactly as be
had dreamed, hung "A block Of stono. The
wornnen removed II for BcrnardinO, and he
hal it sent O. Florence ani takrn to bis
studio
Not until thn did De tell Tornello bis
dream The OdnrtlTf smiled.
"lf n has any significance ~ nll, be- said,
''tln dream means that Ynu nrn iO snaps this
blgNA nf mnrlle iutB tho semhlnne0 ~
hw1uifu wp.pgn. wii0 is 81 le ~ iipfl0i
iallUul as tle Queen ~ che iAiiw. would
Npt i'ipulh If i wern sou, 80 much store
hf iAe difan, they ARE N strange fabric.